Why I love soundtracks

Guardian UK ^ | 12.12.09 | Jon Savage

[Perdogg]

Soundtrack albums are the hidden pleasures of pop. Composed and performed to accompany moving images, they're emotional enhancers. This dramatic quality, coupled with the depth of sound-field in full cinema reproduction, ensures that many soundtracks stand apart from their parent films as a listening experience.

[Since 2009-07-21]

But Goldsmith scores will always be among my favorites. He wasn't as lush as Williams (or as sappy), and his modernistic tendencies are just more appealing to me. The action cues in Papillon, Planet of the Apes, The Chairman are mind-crunchingly good.


Goldsmith was a giant...I agree his "modernistic tendencies" are more appealing than Williams. So far I haven't seen mention of Bernard Herrmann although usually the same Hitchcock movies are cited.....but lately I've been listening to his less talked about scores for movies like Jason and the Argonauts and Mysterious Island, oddly both Ray Harryhausen movies. Much of the creepiness of those skeletons rising from the ground in Jason and the Argonauts is there because of Herrmann's music, the interesting choice of instruments.

[LibFreeOrDie]

A few faves:

Johnny Green - Raintree County

Burt Bacharach - After the Fox

Erich Wolfgang Korngold - The Sea Hawk

Jerome Moross - The Big Country

David Raksin - The Bad And The Beautiful

Dmitri Tiomkin - Red River, Duel in the Sun, I Confess, Friendly Persuasion

Leonard Rosenman - East of Eden

Burt Bacharach - After the Fox

Alex North

Kenyon Hopkins

Elmer Bernstein

Georges Delerue

[Darkwolf377]

I mentioned Herrmann, Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Fahrenheit 451 and Day the Earth Stood Still are also good. I’d add Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and my favorite of his fantasy scores, Journey to the Center of the Earth.

[Since 2009-07-21]

oops, sorry, I overlooked Ghost & Mrs. Muir/Herrmann. Love Fahrenheit 451. I’ll have to check out Journey to the Center of the Earth, haven’t seen that one in ages.

[VOA]

One of my movie soundtrack favorites (among MANY others):
the choral music from “The Hunt For Red October”.

I am NO singer...and well aware of it.
But when I see a broadcast of the show on my own...I find myself
humming along with that choral music.

[Politicalmom]

2/3rds of my music is soundtracks. I thought I was some kind of weirdo. :)

[Darkwolf377]

Good catch, all three of the scores in the Leone trilogy are awesome--they never released them in a comprehensive disc ala TGTBTU, which came out a few years back in an expanded edition. If you can get the Italian 2-disc import of Morricone's Marco Polo, grab it, it's beautiful stuff.

Navajo Joe, Duck You Sucker and Big Gundown are also excellent.

[Darkwolf377]

Journey is an excellent score, in the movie and on its own, very evocative. I love the movie, too, amazing sets.

[denydenydeny]

No love for Nino Rota on this thread? His score for Fellini’s Casanova (1977) is absolutely unforgettable.

Others:

Fellowship of the Ring (Howard Shore)

The Mission (Morricone)

Henry VIII (Patrick Doyle)

[LowOiL]

Big Country ~ Restless Natives

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDBET0oij8

[I Buried My Guns]

When I was a child, my dad took us on a cross-country camping trip. Sometimes it was dark when we drove. Remember that part, it is germaine later.

Anyway, he had 3 eight tracks that he brought:

Simon and Garfunkel, Sounds of Silence: Even as a child I sensed that they were overpaid and overrated hippy dooshes.

Willie Nelson, Yellow Rose of Texas: I have a love for Willie to this day. Maybe it's the pot smoking and tax evasion that we have in common.

But the big winner is the soundtrack to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. SCARIEST SOUNDTRACK EVER. We listened to it all across Nevada, Utah Idaho and Wyoming. The barren lansdcapes, coupled with the music, scared the hell outta me. When it was dark out I did not even want to exit the vehicle for a bathroom break. I was heartened to hear a few years ago from my dad that the Pinto wagon had bit the dust, and thus the eight track player also. Seriously: I am traumatized to this day by that soundtrack.

[Sparky21555]

Feild of Dreams

[a fool in paradise]

Because movies that have no score are BORING. I’ve run across some (and of course there was music in the trailer).

It doesn’t have to be pop songs or anything, just something to frame it.

It can even be “motivated” (in Two-Lane Blacktop the music heard comes from car stereos, juke boxes, etc).

And some soundtrack albums are good. But I think they peaked in the 1960s (late 1950s-1960s), and Mancini has a number under his belt (as does Moriconne).

[a fool in paradise]

One of the things that made “Animal House” such a great movie was Elmer Bernstein’s score.

Yep. The film works because it plays it straight. And the Deltas moved on to the "normal" life after college (gynecologist, senator...). The teen sex comedies that followed can't compete.

[yuleeyahoo]

Carl W. Stalling, though only arranging the scores for hundreds of Looney Tunes shorts; has given me more pleasant memories that any single composer.

[ErnBatavia]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSsTwB-tgvk

[Perdogg]

This is my James Bond playlist

From Russia With Love

Stalking
Main theme

Goldfinger

Main Theme
Into Miami/Alpine Drive

Thunderball

Chateau Flight
007
Cafe Martinique
Thunderball istrumental
Underwater Mayhem/Death Of Largo/End Titles

You Only Live Twice

Capsule in Space
Death Of Aki
You Only Live Twice ending montage.

On her Majesty’s Secret Service

This Never Happened To The Other Fella
On her Majesty’s Secret Service
Bond and Draco
Escape from the Piz Gloria
Ski Chase.

Diamonds are Forever

Gunbarrel and Manhunt
Main theme
Mr Wint and Mr Kidd/Bond to Holland
Tiffany Case
Plenty, then Tiffany
Circus, Circus

The Man with the Golden Gun

Main theme
Goodnight, Goodnight

The Spy Who Love Me

Main theme
Ride to Atlantis
Nobody does it better (instrumental)

Moonraker

Drax’s Estate/Free Fall
Main theme
Miss Goodhead meets Bond
Centerfuge and Corrine putdown
Bond Lured to Pyramid
Flight into space
Lazer battle

For Your Eyes Only

Main theme

Octopussy

Bond look alike
Main theme
009 gets the knife and Gorbina attacks
That’s my little Octopussy
Arrival at Octopussy Island
Bond Meets Octopussy
The Chase Bomb

A View to a Kill

Wine with Stacy Fanfare Snow job
Main theme

The Living Daylights

Air Bond/Necros attack
Main theme
Koskov Escape/Hercules Take off

The World is Not Enough

Access denied
Ice Bandits
Elektra’s theme (This is the one I need to replace with the OST version I have the “Hollywood Stars” version and it’s not as good)

Die Another Day

Main Theme
Going Down Together

Casino Royale

Solange
Vesper
Death to Vesper

Quantum of Solice

Main theme

[potlatch]

Thanks Perdogg. I’m only familiar with the ‘main’ songs from the Bond movies. I see many I never heard of!